Win Ben Stein's Brain...

WARNING: Contains nuts; is very small, you may be hungry later. From the June 11 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

STEVE DOOCY (co-host): Now, let me ask you about this. I saw on one of the debates Barack Obama was asked -- I think by Charlie Gibson at ABC: "What are you going to do about capital gains?" Right now it is at 15 percent --

STEIN: Right.

DOOCY: -- which is -- a lot of people say that's about where it should be. Now, he's suggesting he would jack it up to maybe 25 or 30 percent, perhaps doubling it.

Whoa nelly, let's stop right here. Did Obama really say that? To some limited extent:

OBAMA: So the general principle of raising taxes on higher-income Americans like myself, and providing relief to those who haven't benefited as much from this new global economy, I think, is a sound one. And keep in mind on all of these proposals, what I have said is, let's make sure that we define the well-off so that we're not hitting the middle class. I generally define well-off as people who are making $250,000 a year or more, and that means, for example, if we raise the capital gains tax, I would exempt people who are essentially small investors, and really capture the -- those who have done very, very well over the last two decades.

Less than one-percent of the population and people who, frankly, if they can't live on that, well they just suck. So, knowing what Obama said, we can put Stein's whine in perspective -- he's shilling for the rich because he's rich.

So, continuing on:

DOOCY: What does that mean to us?

STEIN: It means a huge amount in terms of retirement planning, because if you are retiring, you're going to depend a lot on capital gains from your investments to fund your retirement.

DOOCY: Mm-hmm.

STEIN: If that's going to be taxed away, your retirement is in severe jeopardy. So I'm very worried about increasing the capital gains tax, unless you want to just increase it on people that are terribly wealthy. I have no problem with increasing the tax on people who have an income of $5 million a year or more.

DOOCY: Neither do we.

STEIN: Like you two, I would say that would be your --

CARLSON: Yeah, right.

STEIN: I'm guessing that's your income. But people who have incomes in the hundreds and the low hundreds of thousands, people that have incomes in the five digits, that's way -- that's crazy to increase their capital gains tax. People are in a retirement crisis.

Not these people. Unless they're complete morons. They've got 401(k)'s that are loaded. All kinds of investments out the wazoo and, should, have a ton of wealth by now.

To put it in perspective, I just finished up a tax return for a client. He made $746,000 last year. He paid, after deductions, etc., $207,000 in tax. If he can't live on $539,000 he's too stupid to live and needs to kill himself.

Well, he can live on that because he's smart and doesn't let his wealth go to his head and waste it profligately. In fact, he hasn't changed his lifestyle from when he was making $100,000 a year and he's increased his net worth by millions over the past decade. A 30% capital gains tax will not change his retirement prospects in any material matter.

Unlike the small investor who is actually exempt under Obama's plans. And the middle-class that, frankly, has little retirement savings and is going to be working at Target well into their eighties at this rate. Continuing on:

DOOCY: Yeah.

STEIN: A major retirement crisis. We have something like 30 million baby boomers who have no preparation for retirement at all. We've got to get them investing. We can't tax away their gains, otherwise it's just going to be a catastrophe. I could see the retirement crisis being the biggest crisis in this country since the Great Depression.

DOOCY: Oh, man.

CARLSON: Really? Well, and also part of the Barack Obama plan, I think, is to increase the tax when you try to sell your home, as well --

STEIN: Yes.

CARLSON: -- which could affect, well, everyone, but retirees as well.

STEIN: It's going to affect everybody. I don't think he's thought this through. I think he's a good man, but he hasn't thought this through. And I think he's getting advice from people who are more interested in envy and in soaking the rich than in helping the middle class.

No, just the rich. So, in the end, by knowing what Obama said, and knowing what Stein is, we can easily see the Pretensions of Doom to disguise the continuing class-warfare against the middle class and poor. The only people who've gotten anywhere in the past 30 years are the rich. Because they whine and whine and whine and pay shills like Stein to muddy the waters and cry "foul."

Obama's tax proposals do not touch the middle class. And while I've been frank I don't like many of the things he's done and said and have real issues with his competency. Stein's lies are cheap and silly.

Yet fools will believe them. Which, of course, explains Libertarians like Stein.